Rep. Michelle Steel’s race with Democrat Derek Tran in CA-45 shifts to ‘Republican toss up’

• September 6, 2024

In the closely watched race in California’s 45th congressional district, election forecasts have begun to swing toward being more favorable for Democrats.

Election analyst Cook Political Report today changed its rating of the race from “lean Republican” to “Republican toss up.” Democrat Derek Tran, an attorney, is vying to unseat two-term incumbent Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach, to become the first Vietnamese American elected to represent Orange County’s Little Saigon in Congress.

“Democrats now believe they have a strong nominee in Derek Tran, a Vietnamese American attorney who could make inroads with typically Republican-leaning voters in Little Saigon,” Cook Political Report’s Erin Covey wrote in her analysis of the race.

Covey also pointed out that Tran, a first-time candidate, outraised Steel in the second quarter. In the period that covered April to June, Tran reported his best fundraising quarter yet, raising $1.3 million to Steel’s $1.1 million. As of June 30, Steel still maintains a cash lead.

Last week, Inside Elections, a newsletter that provides campaign analysis, also recently changed its rating of the race from “lean Republican” to “tilt Republican.”

Both rating changes come as the race in the 45th has grown increasingly more volatile in recent weeks. Steel’s campaign recently accused Tran of misleading voters about his Vietnamese language proficiency and also criticized him for his previous work as an attorney defending a client accused of sexual assault.

CA-45 is a majority-minority district where the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam resides. The district also picks up Cerritos and Artesia in Los Angeles County, both where Asian residents make up the largest racial group.

“For some reason after two cycles of being proven wrong, inside the Beltway prognosticators still give precedence to (the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s) spin over Michelle winning every cycle — this year, they are falling for Democrats’ nonsense that someone who is a serial liar and represented an alleged rapist is the ticket to beating Michelle — they were wrong before, and they are wrong now,” said Lance Trover, Steel’s spokesperson.

DCCC spokesperson Dan Gottlieb said “the ground has completely shifted beneath Michelle Steel’s feet in California’s 45th, and Republicans are clearly panicked as their desperate attacks continue to fall flat.”

On Friday, Cook Political Report also shifted five more races toward Democrats and two toward Republicans.

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​ Orange County Register 

Excellent teams at Mohs girls volleyball tournament at Edison

• September 6, 2024

The Dave Mohs Memorial Tournament at Edison has its usual collection of standout girls volleyball teams.

Among the 29 teams are Mater Dei, last year’s CIF Southern Section and CIF State top-division champion, and Cathedral Catholic of San Diego that is No. 9 in the MaxPreps.com national rankings. Mater Dei is No. 14 in those rankings; the Monarchs swept No. 3 Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach on Thursday.

Mater Dei was No. 1 in the Orange County preseason rankings. Other county top 10 teams in the Mohs tournament No. 2 Huntington Beach, No. 3 Santa Margarita, No. 5 JSerra, No. 7 San Clemente, No. 9 Newport Harbor and No. 10 San Juan Hills.

A link to the schedule is here.

​ Orange County Register 

Rams rookies Jared Verse and Braden Fiske bonded by competition

• September 6, 2024

In January of 2023, Jared Verse walked out to Florida State’s practice facility with a group of teammates. Dripping in sweat from their session in the weight room, they were set to do some field drills and work on pass rush moves.

Already on the field, his shirt also soaking wet, was a new teammate who had just transferred into the program. A shoulder surgery had him in a sling, but he was still working on a one-armed cross chop.

For Verse, a gym rat who himself had offseason surgery a year ago after transferring to FSU and had to sit out winter workouts, this raised his antenna. But there was still a shadow of a doubt in his mind.

“Whenever you go to a new place, you always want to show them your work ethic. So I’m like, ‘Oh, he’s just trying to show us what he’s about,’” Verse said. “And as time went on, I was like, ‘Oh, this is just who this guy is.’”

That new teammate was Braden Fiske, and those early workouts were the beginning of a genuine respect and close friendship that seemed poised to end after one season together. But as fate would have it, the Rams had different plans, drafting both the outside linebacker Verse and the defensive tackle Fiske with their first two picks in April’s draft.

The organization bet on Verse and Fiske’s work ethic and chemistry to lead them into their post-Aaron Donald future. In Sunday’s season opener against the Detroit Lions, the pair will have a primetime opportunity to show the world what the Rams saw in them.

Anything you can do

Verse’s newfound respect for Fiske’s work ethic in Tallahassee quickly morphed into a competitive instinct that infected both pass rushers.

How much weight did he bench press? How many reps did he do? How long was he in the cold tub? When the team ran sprints to atone for penalties, Fiske looked for Verse in the line and, without fail, the pair finished each heat hip and hip.  It didn’t have to be about football. Verse liked to talk about how he could beat Fiske in basketball, not a terribly impressive brag given that Fiske never played the sport competitively.

Even into November, with Florida State chasing an ACC title, the pair were trying to one-up each other’s personal records in the weight room instead of taking it easy on themselves late in the year.

“My biggest challenge especially during the season was to keep them from killing each other,” Florida State strength coach Josh Storms said, “because there was no end to how far they would push each other.”

And yet, Storms always assigned Verse and Fiske to the same rack, or next to each other. Because as they pushed each other, they set an example for their teammates around them. And as they pushed each other, they each got better.

“Something I learned in this game is you got to find people like-minded, and when you find people like-minded you’re able to do great things because it’s somebody that pushes you and it’s competitive,” Fiske said.

Despite that competition, it never came at the sake of the on-field product.

As they pushed each other to stay in the Seminoles’ practice facility longer and longer, eventually they came to watch film together late into the evenings. While breaking down opposing offenses, they came up with game plans of how they could get each other opportunities at the quarterback. They were willing to take turns absorbing double-teams to allow the other a one-on-one opportunity.

It was this chemistry that would jump off the tape when the Rams studied the duo ahead of the draft.

“It’s like a marriage, there’s give and take to everything and you gotta learn to compromise and you gotta learn when your opps are,” Rams defensive line coach Giff Smith said. “And that’s when you really come together. It has to be in unison and you have to be able to play off each other and you have to be willing to do the dirty work sometimes so the other guy has his opps.”

Perhaps marriage is a good metaphor for the pair, considering how they can bicker.

Florida State’s Jared Verse, right, and Braden Fiske react after a sack against Louisville in the ACC Championship on Dec. 2, 2023, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images)

‘Yin and yang’

To be clear, Fiske and Verse have more in common than not, right down to their backgrounds.

Fiske is the son of steel mill worker and a nurse. He grew up watching his parents work long, odd hours with no days off. He learned that people depend on you to show up to work, and that you owe it to them to do so with full effort.

“That’s where I feel the best at the end of the day when I lay down in bed,” Fiske said. “Like, ‘All right, I put in a complete day of work, I checked all the boxes whether that was for the film, the weight room, the training room, taking care of my body, eating right, sleeping right.’ Just making sure all the boxes are checked.”

Verse’s father is a former Marine who started working night shifts as an engineer following his service. His mother did marketing for hospitals, and the family moved around often as she climbed her profession’s ladder.

They worked long hours, but Verse noted how his mother made time for his football games, or any of his five siblings’ activities. And while his father slept during the day, he always woke up in time to make sure there was food ready when the kids got home from school.

“That kind of dedication just to be in your kids’ lives and help them be better versions of the themselves,” Verse said, “it would be almost disrespectful to them to not show my full capabilities.”

Out of high school, both had to earn their way up the collegiate ranks. Fiske started at Western Michigan, while Verse could only get an opportunity at Division II Albany.

They didn’t necessarily have all the physical tools they needed to earn a Power 5 scholarship out of high school. But they had something else.

“I’ve seen some people with all the potential in the world fizzle out because they didn’t put in the work,” Verse said. “And I didn’t always have that. I wasn’t the fastest, I wasn’t the strongest, any of that, but if I put in the work, I can pass all those people just from my work ethic. I believe that work beats anything; talent, your abilities, anything like that.”

For all those similarities, as you speak with Verse and Fiske, they seem like the type of pairing you’d find in a buddy cop comedy.

Fiske is all midwestern, stoic and observant. Rams head coach Sean McVay compares his demeanor, focus and concentration to Donald’s. Verse is just as locked into the details, but his mouth is always running. He can be heard from the sidelines of the Rams practice field, telling teammates how he can beat them at any given activity.

“It’s like a yin and yang,” McVay said. “I think there’s a good balance because that’s authentically who they each are. Sometimes you have to tell Jared, ‘Hey man, be quiet, get in the huddle and play the next snap.’ Braden is just kind of just taking it in.”

At first, Fiske was taken aback by Verse’s verbosity. Soon, it became part of the routine.

“I got so used to it, I was like, get the hell away from me,” Fiske joked. “It’s not so much what’s said, it’s the amount that’s said. It’s just constant. It’s just like, ‘Jared, we get it, you won. All right, cool.’”

Reunited

There’s a certain cruelty in meeting a friend too late in life, not getting the chance to spend more time together. That was the most likely scenario when Fiske transferred to Florida State in the final year of his and Verse’s collegiate careers. They got their year together, and then would go onto the NFL and the life lottery of the draft.

This reality didn’t sink in for Verse until after Florida State’s triumph in the ACC championship game, a result punctuated by a fourth-down sack by Fiske that allowed the Seminoles into the victory formation.

“I didn’t even think about the fact that me and him were possibly going to go to different teams, which was a high possibility until the last game, until that play, everybody’s celebrating on the field,” Verse said. “The flight home, I’m like, ‘Damn. That could have been one of my last times with him.’ That was the first time it hit me.”

But then came the phone call from Rams general manager Les Snead to Fiske that changed everything. The pause in Fiske’s voice when he realizes what team is calling him, and what that means. The shrieking, uncontrollable excitement from Verse when McVay tells him who’s on the other end of the phone call. The tears in Fiske’s eyes when Verse is given the phone.

Who’s cutting onions? pic.twitter.com/fj3RZaH63Z

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) April 27, 2024

On the opposite side of the country, Storms was at a Florida State softball game with other members of the football staff. As they watched the game, they had ESPN playing on their phones, waiting to see where their Seminoles were going in the draft.

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Apparently, they weren’t the only ones, because when the Rams selected Fiske, a ripple went through the crowd as fans realized the two defensive standouts were reunited.

“For fans, it’s cool, two of our guys went to the same team,” Storms said. “But for those of us on the inside of the program here that had watched those two bond together, the friendship they built, when you saw the Rams take both those guys, that’s special. You’re not just getting two great players, but the way they are together, that can have a giant, giant impact if they can both get off to a strong start to their careers, that can really shape what that defense can become for years to come from now simply because of who those two are when they’re together.”

​ Orange County Register 

Del Mar horse racing consensus picks for Friday, September 6, 2024

• September 6, 2024

The consensus box of Del Mar picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Terry Turrell, Eddie Wilson and Kevin Modesti. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Friday, September 6, 2024.

Trouble viewing on mobile device? See consensus picks

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Infighting derails Westminster City Council; new rules didn’t initially help

• September 6, 2024

The Westminster City Council again is in turmoil with infighting. City business again is suffering.

Last week’s Westminster City Council meeting started at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. It ended after 5 a.m. on Thursday. It was the council’s second 10-plus hour meeting this summer. A lot of what the council managed to accomplish dealt with motions it was supposed to hear two weeks prior, such as approving contracts for street improvements around town and a playground renovation at Tony Lam Park.

“With the infighting, we can’t concentrate on the business at hand to take care of what the city needs,” said Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen.  “We’ve been pushing back items, and this affects residents in the city of Westminster.”

As an institution, the Westminster City Council is no stranger to drama and dysfunction. A previous iteration of the council censured then-mayor Tri Ta and also Nguyen when he was then vice-mayor. A censure is a formal and public condemnation of a councilmember’s behavior.

This summer, another round of volleys to censure councilmembers has bogged down city business and led to institutional reforms. Though they were to take effect immediately, the reforms didn’t seem to have much consequence at last week’s meeting.

The council voted 3-2 to amend the way members can bring agenda items to discussion and to limit how long any member can speak on an item without receiving majority approval to continue.

Before, any two councilmembers could ask the city manager to schedule the discussion of an item. Moving forward, a majority of the council will have to agree to add any agenda item requested by a councilmember other than the mayor. In Westminster, councilmembers are elected by voters in one of four districts, while the mayor is elected citywide.

Councilmember Amy Phan West called the change a convenient way for the majority, who she calls a “gang of three communist dictators,” to silence ideas they disagree with.

“For the mayor to exempt himself, that’s unacceptable,” she said in an interview. In a statement she made on her social media accounts, Phan West said the rule “mirrors the tactics of authoritarian regimes that stifle dissent and disregard the will of the people.”

Nguyen pointed out that the new rule returns Westminster to the way previous councils conducted business, and he defended the mayoral exemption.

“The mayor is responsible for the whole city, not only for one district,” he said. “And the main thing is if we have an emergency item that comes up, the mayor needs to be able to put that up for discussion if the urgency demands it cannot wait until a vote at the next meeting.”

“I’m not abusing the system,” he said. “I’m doing what needs to be done in order to get the city moving forward.”

A second rule intended to limit the length of discussions on existing agenda items to two rounds of five-minute comments unless additional time is approved by a majority vote purportedly took effect immediately.

But after that vote, Phan West and Councilmember NamQuan Nguyen steamrolled the limits, despite repeated warnings from the mayor, proceeding to talk for the vast majority of more than four hours of discussion about agenda items for which other councilmembers did not support extended dialogue.

In an interview, Phan West refused to commit to abiding to the new city rule. “We have freedom of speech,” she said. “I will continue to defend freedom of speech.”

The rule states that if a councilmember does not adhere to the policy or willfully disrupts a meeting, they will be warned to stop three times and if they continue they may be removed from the meeting.

“When a councilmember continues speaking over another member, I have to give a warning,” Charlie Nguyen said. “I don’t want to silence anyone. I don’t want to mute anyone. But I need to get the meeting in order. It is my responsibility to do that. At the same time, I don’t want to remove anyone from the meeting. The goal is to get everyone together and talk about trying to resolve the problem together for the benefit of the community.”

When it comes to discussions about conduct and protocols, the council is divided three against two, with newcomers Phan West and NamQuan Nguyen typically pitted against council veterans Charlie Nguyen, Carlos Manzo and Kimberly Ho, who terms out this fall.

Phan West, elected in 2022 fresh off a primary loss to represent U.S. House District 47, was censured in August by her colleagues for allegations she violated the city’s ethics policy in several ways, including using brash language on the dais, filing a false police report against Manzo and trespassing across a construction site on her dirt bike — among a potpourri of other claims.

West says the allegations are politically motivated. “Maybe they don’t like how I speak so bluntly,” she said.

“I’m not a career politician,” she added, although she has twice run for Congress and said she might run again for public office when her council term ends in 2026. “I will speak from my heart, and I will never be polished or politically correct, you could say.”

Last week, she and NamQuan Nguyen motioned and seconded censure of Charlie Nguyen and Ho, spending about two hours unfurling their allegations against their colleagues. Both of those motions failed when in front of the full council. Phan and NamQuan Nguyen spent awhile arguing for the city to ask voters to appoint rather than elect its mayor — the deadline to add any such measure to the ballot this November has passed and Westminster voters denied that very measure in a 2022 election.

During the discussion, Phan West made derogatory comments about the mayor. She later acknowledged she could have handled that conversation more respectfully.

“I was frustrated because I felt silenced over and over and targeted by a new rule by a group in power that doesn’t care about each individual district’s voice,” she said.

She said the mayor has struggled to keep meetings in order, arguing his warnings to her about crosstalk at the dais are unfair while she says he’s allowing his supporters to heckle her from the audience.

Charlie Nguyen said the new resolution is fair for everyone.

“If we run meetings according to Robert’s Rules of Order and we respect each other, then we don’t need to have additional policy put in place,” he said. Robert’s Rules of Order is the foremost guide for parliamentary procedure for public governing bodies across the United States, including city councils and committees.

The last council meeting also ran long because Phan West and NamQuan Nguyen skipped a two-hour closed session during which city officials were supposed to discuss pending legal issues behind closed doors. It was at least the third time this summer that both have missed a closed session, a pattern that has at times caused public business to get pushed back until later in the evening.

Then, throughout the meeting, the two councilmembers intermittently left the dais together without announcement, interrupting their colleagues while speaking and causing the council to lack quorum on issues when another member needed a recusal or when an exasperated Charlie Nguyen sometimes joined them.

When the two councilmembers walked out of the room at one point, Manzo called their behavior childlike and said it was “the most unprofessional behavior I’ve ever seen in my life.” He later, in an interview, said he regretted his comments as he strives to improve the professionalism at the dais.

Phan West said she comes from the private sector. “I’ve never seen,” she said, “a toxic working environment like this in my whole life.”

The Westminster City Council’s first full meeting with the new rules in place is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 11.

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​ Orange County Register 

Greg Wallis: We need democracy to work for all the people, not just a chosen few in Sacramento

• September 6, 2024

Democracy depends on everyone having their chance to speak. This is especially true in the state legislature when we are debating important public policy issues. Over the past two years, I have been proud to represent the residents of the 47th District. I have always worked in a bipartisan manner to deliver real solutions for California’s working families.

Unfortunately, bipartisanship and the democratic process were absent over the weekend at the California State Capitol.

Instead, what transpired was undemocratic.

Instead of being a place for open debate and democratic discussion, it became a showcase of single-party control. Using rule changes to bypass the traditional democratic process, dissenting voices were shut down and ignored, and the time for Assemblymembers to debate bills was cut from five minutes to just 30 seconds.

These were not trivial matters. The most important bills of the two-year legislative session—bills that demand thorough public debate—were relegated to the bottom of the file, last in line for consideration, and faced the most scrutiny.

We even witnessed the presiding officer of the Assembly refuse to recognize a sitting member of the Assembly when he passionately objected to the rule changes and the degradation of the “People’s House” into a tool of illiberal democracy.

Several members—on both sides of the aisle—attempted to speak on a bill that was supposed to be up for debate but were not even recognized by the Chair, despite our rights and responsibilities as elected Assemblymembers to speak on behalf of our constituents. This silencing is disrespectful to the nearly 500,000 people we each represent.

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What happened Saturday night was entirely undemocratic and indefensible. Silencing members, cutting off debate, and refusing to hear opposing bills is the opposite of democracy. It is an attempt to circumvent the very institutions that uphold our democratic process to rush through an agenda full of half-baked efforts that cannot stand up to thorough public scrutiny. It was a one-sided, rushed, undemocratic calamity.

This is not how we best serve the people of California, where every voice matters and the democratic process is vital to our state’s success.

Californians deserve better than the Legislature’s version of democracy—a false system that appears balanced on the outside but undermines the principles our nation was founded upon. It is genuine balance that will bring us back to a process that serves all Californians—a process that fosters stability, thoughtfulness, and the creation of well-vetted legislation that withstands scrutiny from both sides of the aisle.

What we need are real solutions to the crises we face—housing, insurance, electricity, homelessness, climate change—and real leadership to protect our democratic process. We need to work together, reach consensus, support each other, and collaborate across the aisle. We need democracy to work for all the people, not just a chosen few.

Greg Wallis represents California’s 47th Assembly District.

​ Orange County Register 

The California Legislature is broken and no one with power seems willing to fix it

• September 6, 2024

The California Legislature is broken and there doesn’t seem to be anyone with any power willing to fix it.

After years of being strung along by California Democratic leadership, reparations activists came away from last week’s end of the legislative session empty handed.

It’s not so much that the meat of the reparations package — two bills that would have created a new government agency and a funding mechanism — died; it’s that they died without a vote

The bills, like so many others, should have gotten at least a vote.

To be clear, I didn’t support the reparations bills. They would create a new bureaucracy, cost money the state doesn’t have and, more than anything, I think the debate should happen at the federal level.

But I am entirely sympathetic to the activists who want it, the reasons they want it, and the betrayal they must be feeling now after being strung along for years by the very people who would ultimately not even call it up for a final vote.

It’s actually a common theme. For example, California Democrats by and large say they support single-payer healthcare, and yet it not only routinely dies, but usually without a final vote.

The appeal of killing bills without a vote is that it allows members to continue pretending they support something their base likes without having to actually say how they really feel.

The Assembly can blame the Senate. The Senate can blame the governor. The governor can blame the Legislature. Usually someone blames “special interests.” And for a second you might actually forget that these are the people and institutions with the power and the supermajority to get whatever they want.

Sen. Steven Bradford, the Democratic author of the bills, told KQED that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office requested amendments to gut one of the bills and replace it with a $6 million plan to have the California State University system “study” the issue.

Studying issues and forming task forces are another way politicians kill things without taking any real responsibility. Ironically, the reparations bills were the result of a prior task force Newsom created to study the issue. See how this works?

Newsom is said to be a big supporter of reparations. When he announced the forming of the task force in 2021, he made it known that California was “leading the nation;” that this discussion was “long overdue and deserves our utmost attention” — so much attention that it warrants not one, but two studies.

Did Newsom even read the task force’s 1,100 page report after it was released last year? No, he said, he “devoured” it. You know, just devouring a weighty tome on reparations policy like it’s “Harry Potter.”

But what was once devoured was eventually digested and so the bills died a lonely death.

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Highlighting the point last week was Corona Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli, who tried repeatedly to call the bills up for a vote only to be ignored by the Democratic supermajority.

Essayli, who explained his rationale on X, said he did not support the bills but sympathized with the activists and thought the debate was worth having. After all, the Assembly floor is a place for debate.

But weren’t Essayli’s antics just a stunt?

Maybe, but it was also just a stunt when Vin Diesel jumped a Corvette off of the Foresthill Bridge in “xXx” and people love that movie.

My point is that stunts can serve a purpose. For Essayli, who has spent the past year ruffling feathers in the Legislature, the purpose was to highlight that hypocrisy that fuels the Statehouse.

I repeat: The Legislature is broken and it’s not getting fixed soon.

Matt Fleming is an opinion columnist for the Southern California News Group and CEO of Sower Strategies, a digital marketing and public affairs firm. 

​ Orange County Register 

These 5 bills that got the ax in the state legislature this year

• September 6, 2024

About 2,120 bills were introduced by California legislators this year — but over 900 didn’t quite make it to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk before the legislative session ended last weekend.

Those bills included ones that dealt with social media guardrails and wildfire insurance to AI and sentence reductions for convicted felons.

Here’s a closer look at five that didn’t make it across the finish line this year.

Fining social media companies for harming young users

Social media companies would have had to pay civil penalties for causing harm to young users if AB 3172 was signed into law.

Related: Check out 7 intriguing bills that made it to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk

Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, initially proposed imposing penalties of up to $1 million on social media companies if proven in court that they knowingly offered products or design features that “resulted in harm or injury to minors,” according to the bill analysis, but that fine was eventually lowered to a maximum of $250,000.

Lowenthal proposed AB 3172 to hold social media platforms accountable for harm caused to youth, specifically in light of growing concerns about the impact of social media on children’s mental health and addiction. He pulled the legislation with less than two days left to go in the legislative session, as reported by Politico, after it had been amended to a weaker version.

Lowenthal said he intends to reintroduce the bill next year.

“While this is a setback, this effort is not going away. Instead of bending to special interests, (California) must work for kids (and) families especially when the federal government remains unable to act,” he said.

The bill saw bipartisan support in the Assembly and Senate.

The Chamber of Progress, a trade group that represents tech companies and is funded by over a dozen of them, including Amazon, Apple, Meta and Google, opposed the legislation, saying the “responsibility of ordinary care and skill to a child” is excessively vague.

“Faced with the risk of a deluge of litigation seeking high payments based on unclear standards, websites will be forced to strip any content or features that could be possibly considered inappropriate (or risk severe penalties), which is precisely the sort of ‘chilling’ that the Supreme Court’s vagueness doctrine is intended to prevent,” they said.

One-time rebates for household electric bills

Legislation that aimed to help relieve Californians of their steep electric bills died in the legislature after Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Irvine, pulled it from a committee.

Petrie-Norris said members in both the Assembly and Senate “preferred to continue the conversation,” which is why she chose to pull the bill in favor of pursuing additional options for short-term rate relief and improve affordability.

California has one of the country’s highest monthly fixed-rate utility fees.

Households would have received a one-time rebate payment between $30 to $70. The money for those payments, approximately $500 million, would have come via cuts to several utility programs meant to help low-income residents and schools in areas served by Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric.

Decreasing wildfire insurance costs

Legislation that aimed to provide incentives to property owners who invest in wildfire prevention measures died after the Senate failed to take it to a vote by the end of this year’s legislative session.

Authored by Assemblymember Damon Connolly, D-San Rafael, AB 2416 called on insurance companies to offer more discounts to homeowners and business owners who take steps to harden their homes against wildfires, including using noncombustible construction materials, according to the bill analysis.

It would have required the state insurance department to periodically review and update a list of non-combustible materials, additional wildfire mitigation programs and measures to harden homes.

“Incentivizing home and business owners to invest in home hardening measures will help our communities reach higher levels of fire safety, which will reduce catastrophic losses of life and property,” said Connolly.

In the Assembly, lawmakers split along party lines on the bill.

Preventing AI from making biased hiring decisions

While one artificial intelligence safety bill that requires advanced AI developers to enact safety guardrails headed to the governor’s desk, another that sought to prevent cutting-edge technology from making biased hiring decisions failed to move forward.

Introduced by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-San Ramon, AB 2930 aimed to establish regulations for companies that develop and use AI tools in their hiring process so that they don’t discriminate against people based on various classifications including perceived race, ethnicity, sex, religion, age, national origin, limited English proficiency and disability, according to the bill analysis.

The legislation, when first introduced, sought to regulate the usage of AI in a variety of fields, including the workplace, school admissions, housing, health care, adoption and legal services, to prevent the technology from negatively impacting the availability of and access to those services. However, it was ultimately amended to only include regulation of AI when it comes to hiring, termination and other decisions made in the workplace.

Bauer-Kahan said the legislation protects individuals from algorithmic discrimination by requiring developers and users to assess AI tools that make consequential decisions.

“These tools can exacerbate the harms they are intended to address and ultimately hurt the people they are supposed to help. As the use of decision-making via algorithm becomes more prevalent in our daily lives, it is crucial that we take the necessary steps to ensure that they are used ethically and responsibly,” she said.

In the Assembly, Republican and Democratic lawmakers split along party lines. The full Senate did not vote on the legislation.

Reducing sentences for felons

Should some convicted felons be able to appeal for reduced sentences? That was the idea of Sen. Dave Cortese, D-Campbell, who introduced SB 94, aimed at allowing felons — excluding those convicted of first-degree murder of a police officer, killing three or more people or registerable sex offense — to appeal for a shorter sentence if they had committed a crime before June 5, 1990, and had already served at least 25 years.

The legislation was not considered for a vote by the Assembly and thus died.

Cortese said he is “incredibly disappointed that SB 94 was not granted the opportunity to be heard and the amendments considered for vote by the full legislature.”

In the bill analysis, the senator said that “the majority of people serving a life without parole sentence are classified as low risk,” and that “many of these individuals have shown decades of exemplary behavior, participated in extensive positive programming and have devoted themselves to becoming positive members of society.”

However, Republican lawmakers called the legislation “pro-criminal.”

“The fact that Democrats are debating whether or not to keep violent murderers behind bars shows how out-of-touch they really are,” said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City. “SB 94 is an insult to the victims of these killers, their families and the millions of Californians who are sick of criminals running rampant on our streets.”

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